A former aide to Hillary Clinton who set up and helped manage her private email server is not cooperating with the investigations of FBI and State Department officials, according to Yahoo Politics.
Bryan Pagliano was first contacted by the State Department Office of Inspector General in June, but declined to speak to investigators at the time, Yahoo reports.
{mosads}The FBI also tried to question Pagliano in July when it opened its investigation into whether classified information had been transmitted over Clinton’s server, but he again refused to cooperate.
Yahoo cites unnamed sources who say Pagliano could be a central figure in the investigation with knowledge of the private server’s purpose and what protections were used to guard it against hackers.
Pagliano, who served as an information technology official on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, reportedly set up the server and continued to maintain it during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State, even after he became a technology officer at the State Department.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi subpoenaed Pagliano for documents on Aug. 11 and has called him to testify on Sept. 10.
Lawyers for Bryan Pagliano on Wednesday indicated the former IT employee would assert his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment to not answer questions from the committee, citing the “current political environment.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the panel, said in a statement that the panel’s investigation of Clinton’s private email server while at State is politically motivated, given her presidential candidacy.
“Although multiple legal experts agree that there is no evidence of criminal activity, it is certainly understandable that this witness’ attorneys advise him to assert his Fifth Amendment rights, especially given the onslaught of wild and unsubstantiated accusations by Republican presidential candidates, members of Congress and others based on false leaks about the investigation,” he added.